closer (Minori)

"Where and when?" Minori Akabane asked as she leveled the intense stare of Ashima Asahi one of the most feared in the fortress with one of her own

"a fight's about to break out!!!" a student passing by overheard her and began whispering to the other students nearby

"Seriously?! With who?" someone asked urgently

"its the reaper Akabane and the hellraiser Ashima!!!" the others students shivered after hearing that

"rooftop, lunch, I'll be waiting," Ashima said before turning around noticing the gathered crowd and scowling

"the hell do you guys want?!" he growled immediately dispersing the crowd

Minori watched as he turned a corner her face etched into a frown

"Something serious must have occurred" someone whispered

"she's even frowning what did the hellraiser do to her?"

LATER IN THE COUNCIL ROOM

"he actually agreed!!!" she screamed into the couch pillow a faint red dusting her cheeks as she kicked at air with her lags unable to contain her excitement

"what's gotten into you?" Ryoma asked passing by

Instantly she went back to her usual composure stiffening and sitting pristinely

"I don't know what you mean" she huffed indignantly her facade taking effect once more

Ryoma sweatdrop and looked almost like he got whiplash from how quick that personality switch was

"ok then…" he muttered turning to the president of the council

"I heard the hellraiser stormed the republic faction yesterday" he reported and Minori immediately perked up when he mentioned that title

"they say he said he wanted to have a challenge so he decided it would be interesting to storm the republics main territory in the cafeteria," he said as Minori stared intently at him listening to the details

"he also… Jesus christ!! Why are you glaring at me like that" he brought his hands in front of him in a defensively

She looked to the side attempting to hide the barely-there red on her cheek from getting caught listening intently

"I've been meaning to ask but-" Yamada was cut off by the lunch bell ringing and Minori rushing to the door

ON THE ROOFTOP

There she sat on one of the benches provided by the school to let students enjoy their time in.

contemplating her food remained untouched as she stared at the blue sky.

Ashima was no doubt not the nicest person in the world… well most people wouldn't call him nice, people would just call him the devil before getting knocked out by him

Whenever his name was spoken in a room the people inside it would look behind their backs just to see if he wasn't looming over them

"he didn't seem that bad then," she said to herself recalling the sight she beheld yesterday at the library when she spoke to him

He had seemed a different person then, tamer, more amiable, and more… sympathetic?

And when she looked into his eyes she saw untold amounts of kindness and compassion like an ocean untouched even if humanity was right there beside it

Did she really see that? Could it have been a trick of the light?

"yo, sorry I'm late. got held up by the committee president and his perverse choice of words to describe a fucking pencil," he said taking a seat next to her

He maintained a respectful distance while also being near enough for them to talk easily

She looked at him puzzled

"ignore that," he said looking at the door in annoyance

"Regulus was saying something stupid that's all" he turned back to her with a raised eyebrow

"so, why did you call me up here?" he asked unwrapping a bento in his arms

"I wanted to talk to you about a few books seeing as you are familiar with quite a few of them," she said confidently

She totally didn't practice that in the bathroom for thirty minutes. Totally, that would be stupid

"didn't I tell you to drop the facade?" he scowled in response looking at her in annoyance shooting her confidence down and shattering the facade

"now, what was the real reason you called me up here?" he asked bluntly

Minori scrambled her head trying to search for a response but saying 'i wanted to get to know you' would just be plain awkward!

She had planned through every scenario that could have happened except for this one

"Will you be my friend?!?!?"

Silence.

She looked at Ashima who's chopsticks froze midway to his mouth looking at her in confusion

She mentally berated herself for how stupid that sounded to her. casting her eyes down in embracement with the stupid excuse she came up with

"forge-"

"you're a weird person" he cut her off and she looked even more downcast at the bluntness

He chuckled

She looked up hopefully expecting to see a mocking face laughing at her but instead it was one of bemusement and… joy?

"But I'd be a hypocrite to judge" he continued "sure I'll be your friend," he said smiling warmly

Minori swore she was almost blinded by the sheer brightness in that smile before she noticed a bruise on his arm

"where did you get that?" she found herself asking a bit worriedly

"took a sword straight to the arm yesterday in a brawl at the cafeteria with the republic," he said through a mouth of food

"Why did you fight them?" she asked neutrally

He scratched his head a bit in irritation and a hint of red dusted his cheeks

'c-cute!!!' Minori inwardly screamed

"well since you broke your little facade I should at least tell you some of the truth," he said not meeting her eyes

"what?"

"the republic was picking on the neutrals yesterday in the cafeteria, mocking them about being pathetic and not taking sides with their faction," he said glaring at the floor

Minori was surprised.

It wasn't the usual glare of annoyance or well… his normal expression. but instead, it was a glare filled with righteous anger

"seeing that made me remember how I used to be and how I had wanted someone to step in and put those bastards in their place," he said clenching his fist

"so I helped them weather they liked it or not. I didn't do it for them, I did it for myself. such is the selfish bastard known as me" he laughed mockingly at himself

"you must think I'm an idiot, you can laugh if you want," he said to her casually waving the matter aside

"you're kind" shinoe blurted out suddenly

Ashima looked at her in surprise and tried to figure out where she was going with this.

Unfortunately, she didn't know that herself and was mentally panicking again to think of words to add to her accidental outburst

"The people you helped might not feel grateful but you put yourself in their shoes to see what you wanted and acted on that," she said sternly

"you did what you thought was right and to me, your a good person and you can't convince me otherwise," she said poking a finger to his chest sternly her other hand punched the wall with an open palm for emphasis

She didn't know when she'd gotten this close to him in her rant but she forced down the little voice in her head that was reminding her of how close they really were

He stared at her eyes for a moment before laughing softly. A sound that sounded so right coming from him

"you really are a weird one" he chuckled. his voice tickled her ears from their proximity making her heart skip a beat

"but that doesn't mean your bad" he continued

"thank you"

…

…

…

"Not that I don't find this flattering, but could you please stop pinning me to the wall like your about to confess to me," he said straight-faced

"s-s-sorry!!!" she stuttered out almost tripping over herself in an attempt to let Ashima go from her Awkward hold

He laughed again this time it was at her

"never thought I would be the one pinned to a wall" he teased lightly

"what should I do?" he asked in his best female voice imitation wrapping his arms around his body like that of a jittery school girl in love

"s-stop!!!" she said hitting his chest over and over with punches that would most definitely hurt any other person

"fine! Fine, just stop hitting me" he said clearly not affected by her attacks "learn to take a joke will ya," he said through a laugh

Minori just looked away with a pout.